Apocatastasis


Apocatastasis is reconstitution, restitution, or restoration to the original or primordial condition. An interpretation divides apocatastasis into three types of restorations, those involving virtuous individuals, nature, and the sinful powers of souls.

Etymology and definition

While apocatastasis is derived from the Greek verb apokathistemi, which means "to restore", it first emerged as a doctrine in Zoroastrianism where it is the third time of creation. This period was referred to as wizarishn or the end of history - the time of separation and resolution when evil is destroyed and the world is restored to its original state. The idea of apocatastasis may have been derived from the ancient concept of cosmic cycle, which involves the notion of celestial bodies returning to their original positions after a period of time.
The entry in A Greek–English Lexicon, gives the following examples of usage:
The word is reasonably common in papyri.

Concepts

Stoicism

According to Edward Moore, apokatastasis was first properly conceptualized in early Stoic thought, particularly by Chrysippus. The return of the planets and stars to their proper celestial signs, namely their original positions, would spark a conflagration of the universe. The original position was believed to consist of an alignment of celestial bodies with Cancer. Thereafter, from fire, rebirth would commence, and this cycle of alternate destruction and recreation was correlated with a divine Logos. Antapocatastasis is a counter-recurrence when the stars and planets align with Capricorn, which would mark destruction by a universal flood.
The Stoics identified Zeus with an alternately expanding and contracting fire constituting the universe. Its expansion was described as Zeus turning his thoughts outwards, resulting in the creation of the material cosmos, and its contraction, the apocatastasis, as Zeus returning to self-contemplation. Leibniz explored both Stoic and his understanding of Origen's philosophy in two essays written shortly before his death, Apokatastasis and Apokatastasis panton.

Judaism

The concept of "restore" or "return" in the Hebrew Bible is the common Hebrew verb in Hasidic Judaism.

New Testament

The word, apokatastasis, appears only once in the New Testament, in Acts 3:21. Peter healed a beggar with a disability and then addressed the astonished onlookers. His sermon set Jesus in the Jewish context, the fulfiller of the Abrahamic Covenant, and says:
Grammatically, the relative pronoun "ὧν", could refer either to "χρόνων" or to "πάντων", which means that it is either the times of which God spoke or the all things of which God spoke.
The usual view taken of Peter's use of the "apokatastasis of all the things about which God spoke" is that it refers to the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel and/or the Garden of Eden and not "all things that ever existed".
The verbal form of apokatastasis is found in the Septuagint Malachi 3:23LXX, a prophecy of Elijah turning back the hearts of the children to their fathers; in , echoing Malachi, and in .
Nineteenth-century German theologian Jakob Eckermann interpreted "the 'apocatastasis of all things' to mean the universal emendation of religion by the doctrine of Christ, and the 'times of refreshing' to be the day of renewal, the times of the Messiah."

Patristic Christianity

The significance of apocatastasis in early Christianity is today being re-evaluated. In particular it is now questioned whether Origen, often listed as the most notable advocate of universal salvation, did in fact teach or believe in such a doctrine. In fact, most historians today would recognize a distinction between Origen's own teachings or at least those that have survived and the theological positions of later "Origenists". Even beliefs long attributed to Origen himself, such as a Platonic version of souls existing before bodies, the possibility of a second fall, are found to be much more nuanced and difficult to pin down in Origen's own writings.
Frederick W. Norris, in his article, states that the positions that Origen takes on the issue of universal salvation have often seemed to be contradictory. "In scattered places Origen says quite clearly that he thinks all created intelligence will be restored to God at the end of time. In other places he says, equally clearly, that only souls who make the choice for God and practice the virtues God demands will come to rest in heaven. Those who do not live for God shall suffer eternally in hell or perhaps be annihilated there. If in coming years Origen's treatise on the resurrection is rediscovered, this apparent contradiction may be settled." He concludes: "One could not know in advance which audience would be most likely to accept the gospel, because of the hope engendered by God's overpowering love or because of the fear stimulated by God's threat of hell coupled with God's demand for ethical living. Most audiences of hearers or readers include both groups; knowing this, Origen the pastoral preacher probably kept his view of salvation economically 'open' for a greater effectiveness."
The Alexandrian school adapted Platonic terminology and ideas to Christianity while explaining and differentiating the new faith from all the others. A form of apocatastasis was also attributed to Gregory of Nyssa and possibly the Ambrosiaster, attributed to Ambrose of Milan. Gregory of Nazianzus discussed it without reaching a decision.
Eventually, Origen started to be condemned throughout the early church in local councils, though not apocatastasis specifically.
This changed definitively in the sixth century. A local Synod of Constantinople condemned a form of apocatastasis as being Anathema, and the Anathema was formally submitted to the Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople. The term apocatastasis is mentioned in the 14th of the 15 anathemas against Origen of 553: "If anyone shall say... that in this pretended apocatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist, as it was in the feigned pre-existence: let him be anathema."
The fifth ecumenical council in its sentence during the eighth session condemned "Origen" and his "impious writings"—likely a reference to the teachings ascribed to him by the 543 and 553 anathemas, because during the fifth session Origen's condemnation is described as "recent." Konstantinovsky states that the uses of apocatastasis in Christian writings prior to the Synod of Constantinople and the anathemas pronounced against "Origenists" and Evagrius Ponticus were neutral and referred primarily to concepts similar to the general "restoration of all things spoken" of Peter in Acts 3:21 and not for example the universal reconciliation of all souls which had ever been.
The "official" nature of the anathemas was reiterated subsequently. The Second Council of Nicea explicitly affirmed in its sentence that the Second Council of Constantinople condemned Origen, as well as taught the existence of eternal damnation and explicitly rejected "the restoration of all things," which in Latin is a reference to apocatastasis.

Gnosticism

The gnostic Gospel of Philip 180–350c contains the term itself but does not teach universal reconciliation:

In Christian theology

Early Christianity

generally uses the term apokatastasis to refer to the "restoration" of the "gnostic" Christians, rather than that of the universe or of all Christians, but with universal implications.
As indicated above, the position of Origen is disputed, with works as recent as the New Westminster Dictionary of Church History presenting him as teaching that the apocatastasis would involve universal salvation.
In early Christian theological usage, apocatastasis meant the ultimate restoration of all things to their original state, which early exponents believed would still entail a purgatorial state, Both Origen and Gregory of Nyssa confidently taught that all creatures would be saved. The word was still very flexible at that time, but in the mid-6th century, it became virtually a technical term, as it usually means today, to refer to a specifically Origenistic doctrine of universal salvation. Maximus the Confessor outlined God's plan for "universal" salvation alongside warnings of everlasting punishment for the wicked.

Luther

The Vulgate translation of apokatastasis, "in tempora restitutionis omnium quae locutus est Deus" was taken up by Luther to mean the day of the restitution of the creation, but in Luther's theology the day of restitution was also the day of resurrection and judgment, not the restitution of the wicked. In Luther's Bible he rendered the Greek apokatastasis with the German herwiedergebracht werde; "will be brought back." This sense continued to be used in Lutheran sermons.
Luther explicitly disowned belief that the devils would ultimately reach blessedness.

19th-century Universalism

During the 19th and early 20th centuries several histories published by Universalists, including Hosea Ballou, Thomas Whittemore, John Wesley Hanson and George T. Knight, argued that belief in universal reconciliation was found in early Christianity and in the Reformation, and ascribed Universalist beliefs to Origen, Clement of Alexandria, and others.

Recent works

In recent writing, apocatastasis is generally understood as involving some form of universal reconciliation, without necessarily attributing this understanding to Origen and other Fathers of the Church.